Brian Crockett

I have taken two extensive trainings in Motivation Interviewing with Dr. Thomas Broffman, with whom I also co-authored an article on utilizing MI to help prevent Cocaine use for patients in a MAT setting. The foundation of that article was the success I saw in utilizing MI to run a Cocaine Recovery group to help keep patients in treatment in that milieu that saw a 54% successful retention rate.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is my secondary approach. I find it complements Motivational Interviewing, and arguably any approach, very well. Utilizing primarily CBT and MI (mentioned elsewhere) to inform clinical services at a halfway house in Massachusetts, of which I was Clinical Supervisor, we increased patient retention from 90 days to over 120 and moved a program that was on the verge of being shut down by the state to one of the three highest ranked programs, by independent survey.

I have been doing addiction counseling since I started in this field eighteen years ago. I think Addiction Counseling is my bread-and-butter so to speak and informs everything I do and how I do it. I conceptualize addiction counseling as an approach specific, obviously, to addiction, but that also is mindful of dopamine seeking behaviors, the building and erosion of psychological resilience, identity and boundaries and is collaborative around patient goals.

I am a licensed alcohol and drug addiction counselor in Massachusetts with eighteen years of experience in a variety of roles (counselor, clinical supervisor) and settings (medically-assisted treatment, residential, outpatient, criminal justice re-entry). I have been in private practice for six years, and in the last five I have won Milford's Quest for the Best award for Mental Health Counselor (2d place twice, 1st place three times).

Gambling addiction is exactly parallel to substance-related challenges psychologically and neurologically. I have collaborated with several people concerning gambling and seen people reach their goals. The thing to remember about any addiction or addiction-related challenge is that recovery is both very hard but also very possible. I have seen too much success to believe otherwise.

While I have successfully worked with both men and women, the vast bulk of my experience has been with men. Our identity as men shapes and is shaped by our relationship with substances, whether it is the expectations of the "Man Rules" that we struggle to meet or are weaponized against us, or how we are taught to express our feelings or avoid them, or how society views us as men - these are all dynamics that I have almost twenty years' experience in helping people navigate.